Help I can’t seem to barre chords

[Skyman911]

@all6girlsmotherways-net , barre chords are very difficult, and takes a lot of practice to build the hand and finger muscles. I know some extremely experienced players who never use barre chords. I find them very useful, however I still struggle. I do practice the E chord shape everytime I play. I find it the most useful.

One thing that may help that some people don’t know, is using your non fretting arm to press the guitar body against your body. This will take some pressure off your thumb and index finger. I would recommend trying the E shape barre chord by just pressing the guitar against your body and don’t use your thumb at all. It will be hard, but once you use your thumb again, it will seem easier. The leverage from using the body and the thumb takes a lot of pressure off. Hope that helps a little.

[LauraJean M]

thank you for taking the time to reply this is very helpful

[Moose408]

I started in-person lessons in Sept and he gave me a tip that made barre chords much easier. He had me move the headstock further away from my body. As @Skyman911 mentioned you use your strumming arm to press the guitar against your body and with the neck moved away from you, you have a lot leverage against your index finger. It made a huge difference.

[the-old-coach]

Moose—

This is a great tip! Took me some time to get used to “the feel” of it at first, though. I tend to keep the headstock/neck “close” to me somehow– (I dunno why– just the way I’ve always done it).

I’ll keep working on your method.

Thanks!

[LauraJean M]

thanks for the advice

[LauraJean M]

thanks i will try this

[JohnWP]

I can find plenty of 3-5 cord songs I would love to be able to play that don’t use barred cords. No need to make this harder than it already is. I understand that to make his lessons complete Tony has to cover them. I do include working on a mini F cord w two barred strings in my daily routine and that’s enough for me.

[LauraJean M]

i did discover mini f and b very helpful

[Loraine]

You are not alone in struggling with barre chords. There are professional musicians that don’t play them and avoid them to the nth degree. They’re even those bands such as the Rolling Stones that don’t play those or regular chords most of the time they play basically with power chords . I personally like them and find songs that have a lot of them such as seven Spanish Angels in the key of F to practice with because is almost all bar chords, but that’s just my sick thing..

My suggestion is just keep trying keep practicing keep moving your fingers, wrist guitar until you find the sweet spot. If you do pull the neck up higher, it helps getting the angle you need with your Fred hand in order to eventually play a clean barre chord. The first time it happens you’ll be so excited and then you’ll realize that you can’t duplicate it right away it again you’re back to playing around with it pulling your wrist out making sure your fingers for the non-barre finger/s are curved and not muting other strings. Always play each string in the chord individually, and then if they all play clearly, strum. When you can take your hand off the neck, reposition and play a clear chord 10 times in a row without error, you’re in the good. I have to turn my barre finger at an angle towards the headstock to get more of the bone instead of the fatty part of the finger on the strings, and I also curve my finger instead of straight up and down, and I still keep it within the fret, but by curving it, my pointer finger Is able to fret the root note and the high E.

For the A shaped barre, I use my 2nd, 3red and 4th fingers to fret each srring, because I can’t barre the index and the ring fingers together. I still haven’t mastered the 7th barres, but I haven’t run across them in songs yet.

[petelanger]

“There are professional musicians that don’t play them and avoid them to the nth degree.”

Yeah, Andy Summers claims he never played a barre chord in his life! I posted an article about this in another thread,

https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/learning-left-handed-or-fretting-without-a-pinky/

which didn’t seem to hold him back….

[LauraJean M]

thanks for the response

[Bud6333]

Not sure if you noticed but Tony has a skills course for better bar cords. Might give that a shot.

[LauraJean M]

thank you i will look into it

[jumpinjeff]

Hi Laurajean, I like the suggestion of the bar chord, skills course: super to get to the little things that matter but hard to see at the beginning. Such as….take a moment and figure out what strings are being barred by your “Bar”. Most of us expend way to much energy pushing on, squeezing strings already covered by other fingers. Take the Bar F for example. The low E , the B and the High E. Try making the bar without fingering the chord part, just bar the Low E the B and the High E and figure out how to make those notes ring out (don’t play the other notes just the three that the bar covers.) You may find that by directing pressure with a little practice, you don’t have to wear out your hand to make a bar chord. I think Tony demonstrates this in the bar chord course…and if he doesn’t…., well,…. he should. (I think he does). : )